ETX Mounted on a CG5

[Carole]

Since I got the Megrez telescope and CG5 Mount I have been very disappointed in the tiny size of planets and have been looking at ways to acquire a planetary scope without spending another fortune.

My ETX105 was much better on planets, especially if I could use a Barlow, which was difficult on the ETX as the tracking was so awful, so I didn't want to go back to the old Mount.  So how to combine the best of both?  ETX scope on CG5 mount, but I didn't want to dismantle the ETX from it's mount as it's very portable and handy for taking to observing sessions.

I suddenly had a flash of inspiration to try to mount the ETX on a dovetail plate (ETX mount and all) and then onto the CG5 Mount.  So I pinched the Dovetail plate off my guide scope to try it out.  



Bingo!!  It works.  
(I know this is not the best planetary scope in the world, but it will do for the time being and certainly better than the Megrez).

Now all I have to do is get myself another WO dovetail plate and I'll be able to guide at the same time.

[Ian]

and another member channels heath robinson. I like it.

Question. How big is the counterweight you're planning on using with it? You're relying entirely on the axis locks to prevent that from ending up upside down and knowing CG5 axis locks, I wouldn't...

[Mac]

thats a different approach to mounting the scope on the mount.
Mind you trying to set it up will be fun.
If the telescope is not exactly 0h RA and 0Deg dec. then when you try and align it you will have fun.

Mac

[Carole]

and another member channels heath robinson. I like it.

Question. How big is the counterweight you're planning on using with it?

I've got 2 x 5kilo weights and another smaller one.  I only put this on to try out, so didn't put the weights on.

You're relying entirely on the axis locks to prevent that from ending up upside down and knowing CG5 axis locks, I wouldn't...

Ian are you saying even with the weights on this is not a good idea?  The ETX is designed to use on a wedge, and I would have thought weight wise, it would not be worse than Mark putting his C11 on a CG mount.

If the telescope is not exactly 0h RA and 0Deg dec. then when you try and align it you will have fun.

Yes I've thought of that, I shall put it in the "ETX Home position" which is 0 RA and 0 Dec.

Perhaps I should give this a try out at aligning - if we ever get any suitable weather (before buying the extra dovetail plate).

Carole

[Carole]

Well the good news is, it works.  I had no problems aligning it, but for the first time ever I have had to put more than one counterweight on.

I am trying to get an image of Mars, but that's not so successful.  The old XP laptop is really on it's last legs, and K3 does not work properly, doesn't save AVIs and I can't access old ones.  There are no drivers for Vista for the Phillips Webcam, so I'm having a go at imaging with the SC3 on Vista (no colour).  I could have a go at re-installing K3, but I think the laptop is clapped out.  

Carole

[Mike]

What exactly is wrong with the laptop?

Are you sure it doesn't just need a clean install of XP ?

Maybe it would be better running Linux?

[The Thing]

Carole, Phillips spc900nc has Vista drivers. Been using mine for ages, the QHY5 is far easier though. Guiding right now!

[Carole]

I bought my Phillips Webcam from Bern at Modern Astronomy and he said it had it's own driver built in and would install itself which it did on both my previous laptop (ME) and XP, but it would not do it on Vista.  It tried to find one on the web but said it couldn't find one, so I went back to Bernard and he told me there were no drivers for my webcam on Vista.  Mines a Phillips PCVC680.

What exactly is wrong with the laptop?

Doing all sorts of peculiar things.  

1) When I first switch it on, if I've not used it for a few days) it runs a whole stream of numbers for ages, and then it tells me there was a problem (and gives me 3 options.  I can't remember what they were and it won't re-enact it now because I used it this evening, so I can't tell you exactly what the options were), I pick F1 and then sometimes it works OK, and then .....
2) Sometimes it gets stuck on the Welcome screen and won't go any further.  I can sometimes release it at that point by doing Ctrl/Alt Delete and then it will move on.
3) In K3 it won't open any previous AVIs (says list index it out of bounds) and tonight it wouldn't save any.
4) PHD crashes when you try to select a camera (Mark saw this).

I don't use it for anything other than Astronomy, so who knows what other delights it could produce!!!

Are you sure it doesn't just need a clean install of XP ?

Don't know Mike, I don't know enough about computers I'm afraid, if it doesn't work then I can't fix it.  
I have no experience of Linux.  

I'm not really using the XP laptop now as I do all my imaging and guiding on my Vista laptop.  I only went back to the old XP laptop because I wanted to use the webcam and as I said before the webcam won't run on Vista.  But now K3 won't work on XP I might as well forget the Webcam/XP scenario and go down another route.  

One otehr thing that DID work well tonight was the Bahtinov Mask. which I tried for the first time.
Carole

[Mike]

Why not also put XP on your Vista laptop so you can boot into either?

[Carole]

Why not also put XP on your Vista laptop so you can boot into either?

I think that's what I will do Mike.

I was going to get Mac to convert the Vista in it's entirety to Vista (when I was having problems getting PHD to download to Vista and it would not work on the XP laptop), but since Mark has managed to install PHD on the Vista (after adding Winzip and something else), I decided not to do that since it was all working.

I think now I will get him to do a partial conversion as I have a partition he can use, so as you say i can use XP for some things and Vista for others.

Is that OK Mac when you get a chance? 
I can use the licence from the XP laptop.

Carole